In the twentieth century, the fountain pen was both an everyday tool and a test of industrial ambition. As Chinese factories moved from assembling foreign parts to making their own nibs, feeds and barrels, a few names came to stand for that work: Hero and Wing Sung in Shanghai, Jinxing after its move to Beijing, and Ostrich Ink in Tianjin. Their histories run through war, technical campaigns, export drives, state ceremonies, mergers and the hard adjustment to a market economy.
Hero: from Huafu to the pen of the Republic
Hero's predecessor was Huafu Gold Pen Factory, founded in Shanghai in 1931 by Zhou Jingting, a native of Fenghua, Zhejiang. The initial investment was 15,000 silver dollars, and the purpose was blunt: to break the assumption that Chinese industry could not make fountain pens. The factory began on Xizang South Road, Shanghai, producing Xinmin-brand gold-nib pens at prices that suited students and intellectuals, with smooth writing as the selling point. During the War of Resistance against Japan, production moved to Chongqing and continued. After 1949 the factory returned to Shanghai; in the 1950s it settled at 127 Qilianshan Road in the Taopu Industrial Zone.
In 1958, during the Great Leap Forward, Huafu was renamed Hero Gold Pen Factory. The slogan of the period was 'Hero catches up with Parker, wins glory for the country.' It was not only rhetoric. The factory spent nine months developing the Hero 100, and in 11 of 12 measures it was said to surpass the Parker 51, including a seven-stage continuous stamping process for nib blanks and injection-molding group control. By the mid-1960s the name Hero was formalized, and exports reached more than 60 countries and regions. In the late 1980s the product mix moved toward mid- and high-end models; total assets exceeded 700 million yuan, and market share approached monopoly. In the early 1990s, under government intervention, Hero merged with Wing Sung and pursued diversified investment, which left the company with tight cash flow.
Hero also became part of official history. On April 13, 1984, Deng Xiaoping used a Hero pen to sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Hong Kong question. Hero pens were also used for documents connected with Hong Kong's return in 1997, Macau's return in 1999, the founding of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and China's accession to the WTO. That record gave the brand its reputation as a pen of the Republic.
Representative Hero models
- Hero 100 (1958): a large-hooded gold-nib pen with double jewels on cap and barrel end, smooth writing, and the model most closely tied to the 'catch Parker' campaign.
- Hero 616 (1960s): a classic student pen with a plastic shell, durable and economical.
- Hero 800 (1980s): a mid- to high-end upgrade with a resin shell and a more refined appearance.
Wing Sung: Shanghai assembly, technical upgrading, and a brand's afterlife
Wing Sung was founded in Shanghai in the early 1940s by Niu Yongji. It began by assembling semi-finished products from Parker and positioned itself in mid-range stationery. Its site was on Luofu Road. In 1958 it absorbed five electroplating factories and the Xinming Pen Factory, expanding capacity. In 1960 the Dalu Gold Pen Factory was converted, and its large-hooded gold-nib production line was transferred to Wing Sung. In 1963 the enterprise was renamed Local State-Owned Xinhua Gold Pen Factory. During the 1960s and 1970s it carried out several technical upgrades, including stainless-steel laser welding machines and multi-position stamping, and imported equipment from Japan and Switzerland. These changes improved nib precision and output, although Wing Sung did not leave a record of large-scale export.
Publicly documented turning points are fewer and mostly internal. In the early 1990s Wing Sung merged with Hero, with unified funds, but diversification created operating pressure. In 1999 the original factory closed. The brand was acquired by Hero Industrial, not Hero Group, and today's Wing Sung pens on the market have no connection with the original factory. For the independent national brand, that was the end.
Representative Wing Sung models
- Wing Sung 233 (from 1965): a metal-bodied pen with a grid pattern and stable writing.
- Wing Sung 235 (1960s): a gold-grid metal body with a large hooded nib, a classic model clearly recorded in the literature.
- Wing Sung 727 (late 1960s): a fountain-pen and ballpoint dual-use pen, combining two everyday writing functions.
Jinxing: a Beijing base and an export record
Jinxing was established in Shanghai in 1932 and initially made mid-range gold-nib pens. In 1952 it moved to Beijing with 132 workers and quickly resumed production. In the 1950s it introduced well-known models, and in 1958 it began exporting. By 1965 exports accounted for 76 percent of its output, making it a representative 'national pen.' In 1992 it reached its peak, with industrial output of 28.478 million yuan and sales revenue of 31.109 million yuan. By 1998 output had fallen to 18.126 million yuan. In 1995 the factory moved to Dingfuzhuang, outside Beijing's Fifth Ring Road.
The major events around Jinxing were relocation and export. The 1952 move north established its Beijing base; the export peak from 1958 to 1965 sent products to Asia, Africa and Latin America. Those steps helped bring Chinese stationery manufacturing into international markets.
Representative Jinxing models
- Jinxing 28, or Big Jinxing (1950s): a luxury representative with a refined body and smooth writing.
- Jinxing 26, or Small Jinxing (1950s): a small, portable model that became an export mainstay.
- Little Panda (1980s): a cartoon pen remembered by children of the 1980s, with a plastic shell and playful design.
- Jinxing 103 and 710 (later period): models known for a distinctive nib feel, classic and durable.
Ostrich Ink: the chemistry behind the writing
Ostrich Ink's history reaches back to 1875 and the Chengwenxin Printing Bureau in Zhaoyuan, Shandong. In 1935 Guo Yaoting founded the Chengwenxin Deji stationery store on Guodian Street in Tianjin and began producing ink. During the War of Resistance, imported ink was scarce, and Guo decided to make a high-quality product. He avoided low-grade basic dyes and turned to blue-black ink research. In the 1940s and 1950s the operation was named Ostrich Ink Factory; its products became known for durability and resistance to fading and supplied stationery markets across the country.
The key events were the 1935 founding, which filled a gap in domestic high-end ink, and participation in a national daily industrial products exhibition in the 1950s, where Ostrich stood alongside products such as Flying Pigeon bicycles. In the early 2000s the enterprise was restructured into a shareholding company, with employees taking part in management, and it moved into areas such as spray ink. The twentieth century, however, laid the foundation for its later recognition as a China Time-Honored Brand in 2006.
Ostrich was not a pen maker, but its blue-black ink was essential to fountain-pen use. Its range included writing ink and industrial ink, and its reputation rested on quality.
What remains
These factories did not share one fate. Hero became a witness to diplomacy, Jinxing opened export markets, Wing Sung concentrated on local innovation before its brand passed into other hands, and Ostrich supplied the ink that made writing possible. Mergers, market shifts and changing habits of writing all left marks on them. Yet their models and dates still carry the memory of an industrial culture in which a pen was not a disposable object but a product of precision, pride and national ambition.